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Charles Hoskins
Charles Henry Hoskins (1851-1926) was an Australian industrialist, who was significant in the development of the iron and steel industry in Australia.
Charles Hoskins was born on 26 March 1851 in London, to John Hoskins, gunsmith, and his wife Wilmot Eliza, née Thompson. He emigrated with his family to Australia as a small child in 1853, and all his education occurred in Melbourne.
After his father's death, the family moved to Smythesdale, near Ballarat. Hoskins began work as a mail boy, tried his luck on the goldfields, and worked as an assistant in an ironmongery store in Bendigo.
Charles Hoskins joined his elder brother George (1847-1926) in Sydney in 1876, operating a small engineering workshop at Hay Street, Ultimo. Around 1889, their firm, G & C Hoskins, moved to larger premises in Wattle Street, Ultimo and established a foundry, pipe-works and boiler shop. This plant was expanded in 1902. It was pipe manufacturing that would lead to their success.
A breakthrough came when they began to win contracts for the Sydney water supply mains. This was to provide a steady flow of work through their Ultimo factory for a number of years after 1892. In 1904, the other major pipe manufacturer in the Sydney market, Pope & Maher, failed; G & C Hoskins were left as the dominant supplier in that market. From 1911, they opened a second facility at Rhodes, to manufacture cast-iron pipes.
The Hoskins brothers were not only efficient; they were also innovative, patenting a number of their ideas for improving pipes and their manufacturing processes.
The issue of protection against imports was the principal political division of late 19th-century Australia. In New South Wales, almost alone of the Australian colonies, there was widespread support for free trade. A growing force was the Labor Party; it somewhat favoured protection, as a means to maintain relatively high wages, but also advocated nationalisation of major industries, complicating its position.
Politically, Hoskins was for Federation, free trade between the Australian colonies, and uniform tariff protection against imports from other countries. The Chamber of Manufacturers of New South Wales had been established in 1885—Hoskins was an early and prominent member—with its primary supporters focusing on lobbying for protection, in direct opposition to the "Free Traders" led by Sir Henry Parkes and later George Reid. This oppositional approach made little progress, with Free Trade governments holding power in New South Wales, except between 1891 and 1895. In 1895, Charles Hoskins was the first president of a reconstituted Chamber of Manufacturers that aimed to advance industry, without partisan political lobbying, an approach that it has followed since that time.
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Charles Hoskins
Charles Henry Hoskins (1851-1926) was an Australian industrialist, who was significant in the development of the iron and steel industry in Australia.
Charles Hoskins was born on 26 March 1851 in London, to John Hoskins, gunsmith, and his wife Wilmot Eliza, née Thompson. He emigrated with his family to Australia as a small child in 1853, and all his education occurred in Melbourne.
After his father's death, the family moved to Smythesdale, near Ballarat. Hoskins began work as a mail boy, tried his luck on the goldfields, and worked as an assistant in an ironmongery store in Bendigo.
Charles Hoskins joined his elder brother George (1847-1926) in Sydney in 1876, operating a small engineering workshop at Hay Street, Ultimo. Around 1889, their firm, G & C Hoskins, moved to larger premises in Wattle Street, Ultimo and established a foundry, pipe-works and boiler shop. This plant was expanded in 1902. It was pipe manufacturing that would lead to their success.
A breakthrough came when they began to win contracts for the Sydney water supply mains. This was to provide a steady flow of work through their Ultimo factory for a number of years after 1892. In 1904, the other major pipe manufacturer in the Sydney market, Pope & Maher, failed; G & C Hoskins were left as the dominant supplier in that market. From 1911, they opened a second facility at Rhodes, to manufacture cast-iron pipes.
The Hoskins brothers were not only efficient; they were also innovative, patenting a number of their ideas for improving pipes and their manufacturing processes.
The issue of protection against imports was the principal political division of late 19th-century Australia. In New South Wales, almost alone of the Australian colonies, there was widespread support for free trade. A growing force was the Labor Party; it somewhat favoured protection, as a means to maintain relatively high wages, but also advocated nationalisation of major industries, complicating its position.
Politically, Hoskins was for Federation, free trade between the Australian colonies, and uniform tariff protection against imports from other countries. The Chamber of Manufacturers of New South Wales had been established in 1885—Hoskins was an early and prominent member—with its primary supporters focusing on lobbying for protection, in direct opposition to the "Free Traders" led by Sir Henry Parkes and later George Reid. This oppositional approach made little progress, with Free Trade governments holding power in New South Wales, except between 1891 and 1895. In 1895, Charles Hoskins was the first president of a reconstituted Chamber of Manufacturers that aimed to advance industry, without partisan political lobbying, an approach that it has followed since that time.